Rick Benjamin (born October 22, 1952 in Danbury, Connecticut) is a motorsports journalist. He was

Speed Channel Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as ...

's voice of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, and was the voice of

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Team ...

racing for

HDNet AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat s ...

from 2004 until the end of the final season of Champ Car in 2007. Benjamin was a local news reporter from 1976 until 1996, being a television anchorman and managing editor for markets as diverse as

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state ...

(where his youngest son's birth was announced on-air);

KSAT-TV KSAT-TV (channel 12) is a television station in San Antonio, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Graham Media Group, the station maintains studios on North St. Mary's Street on the northern edge of downtown, and its transmit ...

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

; the Nebraska Television Network in

Kearney, Nebraska Kearney is the county seat of Buffalo County, Nebraska, Buffalo County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 30,787 in the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is home to the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The westward push o ...

; KWQC in the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are th ...

of Iowa and Illinois; Toledo, Ohio; and Roanoke, Virginia. He was also the news director for Waterbury, CT's WATR. Benjamin also did work for

Mizlou Television Network Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...

for their

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and h ...

coverage, and for

SportsChannel SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, 1 ...

in 1990 when they aired Busch Grand National races, using the pseudonym Ron Williams. When

The Nashville Network The Nashville Network, usually referred to as TNN, was an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming included music videos, taped concerts, movies, game shows, syndicated programs, and numerous talk shows. On September ...

bought 50% of Ken Squier and Fred Rheinstein's World Sports Enterprises, and shifted production of TNN's popular '' RaceDay'' from Patterson International to the network's own in-house operation, located inside the industrial park of

Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including t ...

, Benjamin was named anchor of the network's RaceDay in 1995, anchoring the show until MTV shut down the entire CBS Charlotte operation in November 2000. Benjamin is responsible for the "rebranding" of CART into Champ Cars, as during the CART-IRL dispute, Benjamin began using the term "Champ Car," an old term used in USAC during the Marlboro Championship Trail, to refer to the CART formula in 1997, on RaceDay after the rival Indy Racing League switched to a normally aspirated formula. The show used the term, which CART began using in 1998 after Federal Express took over sponsorship of the series from PPG Industries, and the new "Champ Car" term was a reference to the FedEx Championship Series. Since 2004, he has been the lead announcer for the series, which has gone out on Spike TV, CBS, NBC, Speed Channel & in 2007 returning to the networks of ESPN & ABC for the first time since 2001. Benjamin was one of the first on-air personalities at Speed when it was launched as SpeedVision in 1996. He is a former '' SpeedNews'' anchor. Benjamin is also frequently a backup news anchor at Charlotte radio station WBT, where he has some duties with the Carolina Panthers pre and post game shows, and has used his experience in the news media to form Visioncast, where his group teaches drivers, crewmen, and corporate representatives to face the media. Benjamin formerly co-hosted Tradin' Paint with Danny "Chocolate" Myers on

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Sirius ...

channel 90. He was succeeded by Jim Noble. Benjamin also appeared in the movie '' Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'', starring Will Ferrell.

References

1952 births Living people Motorsport announcers {{US-autoracing-bio-stub